Jaco Beach Activities & Fun Things to Do

Beach activities include horseback riding, volleyball, swimming, surfing, parasailing and more. Several top surfing tournaments are held here each year. Heed all warning signs, as the rip tide can be deadly here, and don't go in the water alone. Most beach hotels provide chairs and other amenities for guests.


You can rent scooters, quads, surf gear and practically anything related to having fun in the sun in one of countless little shops on the main drag or one of the mini-malls. Golf is available at the Marriott Los Suenos in Playa Herradura, which is a few minutes north. Sportfishing charters also operate from the Herradura dock

Tap on fishing Jaco information for details.

Every kind of dining you can imagine is on the menu at the myriad of restaurants, from Italian to seafood, to Tex Mex and hot dogs. Hicaco is my choice for seafood. Hotels such as Copacabana offer beachfront dining in the privacy of hidden gardens.


Attracting a younger crowd than most parts of the country, this area is also popular with Costa Rican families from the city and countryside. It is the closest beach to San Jose (Puntarenas is really closer, but the water is polluted so it doesn't count.) You will meet more Latinos than North Americans here. It is sort of like Daytona Beach in the 80s, only without a NASCAR racetrack.


While there are no race cars, lots of taxis make it easy to get around without a vehicle. Budget and Economy have large fleets, but you should still reserve in advance. Otherwise, you may have to rent a scooter for $30 a day. A romantic saunter along the sand from one end to the other will take an hour or longer, depending on how romantic things actually get

Zip Line Canopy Tours, Parks and Lots of Bars

Two zip line canopy tours are close by, the Chiclet Canopy Tour and Canopy Adventures. Local tour agencies or your hotel can arrange a day trip inland to nearby Carava National Park. Or south to Manuel Antonio National Park and even more exotic beaches.


Rainmaker Mountain Nature Refuge, a 1,500-acre private reserve of virgin mountain and primary rainforest, can be reached if you drive. Guided four-hour tours run around $50 from town and include transportation, entrance fee and lunch

Nightlife, Nightclubs and Bars

Nightlife often starts before night even falls. Rock 'n Olas (olas means waves) and the Beatle Bar are the hot spots on the north end. If you were to drink a beer or shot of guaro in each bar as you walk down the main drag, I would suggest starting at the opposite end of the main drag from your hotel. Otherwise you may wind up crawling the last few hundred feet.


The more secluded resorts provide privacy and intimacy when you want to get away from the nonstop party of this Daytona Beach of Costa Rica. But as I said at the outset, this is a hard core party town with lots of action.